Injecting drug use is driving the fastest-growing Aids epidemic in the world. It's happening in eastern Europe. The number of HIV-infected people in Russia, for instance, has grown tenfold over the past decade from around 100,000 to one million, most of whom are under the age of 30.

The International Harm Reduction conference, celebrating its 21st anniversary in Liverpool this year, where the movement began, heard today that tackling the spread of HIV through injecting drug users is being hampered by a massive funding gap. A new report, co-authored by Gerry Stimson, its outgoing executive director, found that the equivalent of 3 cents a day per injector is being spent on HIV-related harm reduction - such as clean needle exchanges and substituting methadone for heroin.

In 2007, approximately $160 million was invested in HIV-related harm reduction in low and middle income countries, of which US$136 million (90 per cent) came from international donors, the report says. UNAIDS estimated that the resources needed for harm reduction were US$2.13 billion in 2009 and US$3.2 billion in 2010.

According to Stimson:

Three cents a day is a terrifying figure and equally terrifying are the HIV infection rates amongst injecting drug users in parts of Eastern Europe and Asia. Current spending is clearly only a small proportion of that required and is nowhere near proportionate to need. More money is needed for harm reduction, and it is needed now.

We have known now for well over two decades that HIV is preventable – it is untenable that today in some 90 low and middle income countries nearly all people who inject drugs have absolutely no access to HIV prevention such as methadone and in some 70 countries they are without access to needle exchange services - especially when we also know that prevention measures such as these are significantly cheaper than treatment. Harm reduction is a low-cost, high-impact intervention. Its funding needs to be better monitored and 2O per cent of global HIV prevention funds should be dedicated to it.